The company produces the Captiva, Optra, Cruze, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, Spark, Beat and Tavera in the country from its manufacturing facilities in Halol in Gujarat and in Talegaon Maharashtra.

It had reported a total sales of 69,579 units in 2009 and expects to cross one lakh sales mark this year, he said.

When asked about the demand for this particular variant, he said, "The waiting period for 'Beat' is currently around 30-40 days." He added so one can gauge the demand for this car.

However, he said the company's majority of sales were driven by its popular small car 'Spark'. "Compared to last year sales our growth this year is 113 per cent. We sold 69,579 units of which 30,000 units were Spark models," he said.

To a query on whether the company would introduce petrol variant of premium luxury sedan Cruze, he gave a negative reply adding that sale of diesel variants have exceeded the expectations.

For the same reason the company planned to introduce the diesel variant of Beat in the country. "We are planning to launch it in the first quarter of 2011 (calender year)," he said, declining to elaborate.

On customer retention, he said over 60 per cent of the company's existing customers prefer to come back for buying a new vehicle. "The average period is four years. After that either they exchange and go for a new model or sell the older model and opt for a new one," he said.

He claimed General Motors were the first to introduce a three-year warranty, which made the existing buyers to come back for new models.